Born in Turin, Italy, in 1961, Paolo Torchio came to Kenya in 1990. A keen photographer since childhood, he was immediately captivated by the African wildlife and wilderness areas that he encountered, and quickly made the country his home. He has lived and worked in Kenya ever since.

In this time, Paolo has travelled widely in Kenya, and - increasingly of late - in other parts of Africa as well, including Madagascar. His photography aside, he has played an active role in various wildlife conservation projects in Kenya, often in association with the Kenya Wildlife Service.

His photographs and articles documenting aspects of the region's animal, bird and insect life have appeared regularly in Swara, the quarterly magazine of the East African Wild Life Society (EAWLS), where they are seen all over the world. Since 2005, Paolo has served on the Swara Editorial Committee, in which capacity he has completed various photographic and reporting assignments exclusively for Swara.

Paolo's work has appeared in a host of other Kenyan wildlife and travel magazines, including Travel News, Kenya Birding, and About Kenya, as well as in some illustrious wildlife magazines elsewhere in the world, such as Oasis, in his native Italy, for which - in 2005 - he compiled a feature on The World's Biggest Ever Translocation of Elephants.

Paolo's photography has earned widespread acclaim. In 2006 he was declared Overall Winner of the East African Photographer of the Year Award. The East African Wild Life Society's 2007 Calendar featured his work exclusively. A grand jury in Tokyo, Japan, has selected one of his photographs

- Sun and Fog, taken in Kenya's Lake Nakuru National Park - for inclusion in the prestigious Nikon Calendar for 2009.

Paolo is adamant that photography, through helping to publicize the plight facing some of Africa's threatened wild species and habitats, has a decisive role to play in securing their long-term conservation. "My focus," he says, " has increasingly become one, not just of taking exquisite photographs of wildlife in all its aspects, but one too of how best I can then use the images I take to help advance the conservation cause."